Will You Marry Me Brownies

Will You Marry Me Brownies ~ a simple pan of homemade brownies has won more hearts than any box of bonbons or dozen roses ever could. This easy chocolate dessert is deceptively simple and surprisingly persuasive.

Brownies are the most democratic of all the desserts, they’re within everyone’s reach, which is probably why they’re one of the first things we learn to cook. You need no special skills or equipment to make them ~ a tired old apartment oven will do the job as well as a fancy Wolf or Gaggenau range. All you really need is a bowl, a wooden spoon, a classic pyrex baker, and a burning desire to eat a warm chocolatey brownie. (Or a burning desire to impress someone special with one.)

Can you remember the first time you pulled a perfect pan of brownies out of the oven? Those first bites of molten chocolate were testament to the fact that even with rudimentary skills, we could pull off a masterful act of magic in the kitchen. Making a first great batch of brownies is enough to launch a lifelong love of cooking (not to mention chocolate!) If you don’t have a favorite brownie recipe under your belt, this is a good one to try.

Can we agree? The perfect brownie is:

moist and fudgy inside without being wet or soggy

has a paper thin crackly crust with a slight sheen

and a nice rich chocolatey flavor

there should be bits of melty chocolate in every bite

and the nuts are optional, I can go either way.

Brownies are super easy to throw together, but the art comes in knowing when to pull them from the oven.

Brownies go from perfect to over-cooked in a very short time, so this is key. A toothpick won’t do you any good, the inside is supposed to be moist! (And am I the only one who can’t bear to mar the sleek surface of a pan of brownies with a big old toothpick hole?)

Your best bet is to look at the surface and the edges. The surface should be dry and the edges juuuuuuuust looking a little more cooked and starting to pull away ever so slightly from the sides of the pan.

I always err on the early side when cooking brownies because even if a brownie is slightly under-cooked it’s still amazing, you can’t lose.

When you taste a great brownie it should make you wonder why you would ever want any other dessert.

This easy chocolate dessert is deceptively simple and surprisingly persuasive.

Ingredients

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 and 1/4 cups cocoa powder, I used a combination of regular and Dutched (Hershey's Special Dark)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp espresso powder

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

2 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups (a 12 ounce bag) semi sweet chocolate chips

powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F, lightly butter a 9x13 pan

Beat the eggs with the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla until smooth and well combined.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and stir in the sugar. Cook, stirring constantly, on medium low heat, until the mixture almost comes to a simmer, but not quite (don't let it bubble.) Stirring constantly helps the sugar to dissolve.

Pour the hot butter into the egg mixture, gently beating or whisking well to combine. You aren't looking to incorporate any air into the batter, so don't use too much elbow grease!

Blend the flour and the chocolate chips into the batter. Turn into your prepared pan and spread out evenly.

Bake for about 28-30 minutes, or until dry on top and the edges are starting to look cooked and are just slightly pulling away from the sides of the pan. Cool on a rack.

Thanks for pinning!

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20 Comments

Darlene

July 7, 2019 at 10:11 am

I’ve made this about five times now. The last batch was on Father’s Day when I visited my cousins at the Jersey shore. They said they were the best they ever had. I gotta say they’re my favorite brownies recipe. I like them best when I used Hershey’s special dark. Ever since unsweetened chocolate got so expensive I switched to unsweetened cocoa. I like the addition of espresso powder ( I cut in half) to add to the richness of the flavor. I cut back on the sugar and added more chocolate chips on top. I’m thinking of entering it in the L.A. fair competition. I won a blue ribbon for my chocolate chip cookies last year. Who knows ? Maybe I will win for these!

Angela

February 3, 2019 at 9:48 am

My first batch of these is just out of the oven, but it seems that the recipe didn’t work. I am an experienced cook and baker, with scores of brownie batches under my belt (literally!). The butter and sugar mixture never seemed to combine with each other in the pan. It crystalized a bit after I mixed it with the other ingredients; I even had to remove some really large chunks from the batter. It would have been helpful if the recipe indicated how long that step should take. The butter seemed to bubble in little pockets during baking. I’m tasting little corners as they are cooling, and I’m finding the top to be a little hard, and the taste to be not as sweet as I expected, and they’re grainy and a bit bitter. Do you have any idea why things went bad?

I’m sorry this didn’t work for you Angela, and I’m trying to think what could have gone wrong. When you melt the butter and sugar together in a saucepan, they should combine well, they just melt together. You cook it, stirring, for just a few minutes, but not to the point where it simmers or boils. I can’t understand why it would crystalize when you added it to the other ingredients…were your eggs really cold by chance? As for the hard top, that sounds like an over baking problem, possibly.

Sandra D in Joliet

January 31, 2019 at 12:09 pm

I wanted to bake something since I was smack dab in the middle of the vortex with fifty below zero wind chill factor. Today is a balmy big fat zero, a heat wave! So I dug out Mom’s brownie recipe and made them. I love them because there’s a bit of Karo corn syrup in them that keeps them nice and moist for days and it calls for baking chocolate. I love brownies of many kind but Mom’s is my favorite. I’ll have to try this one someday when I’m in the mood for brownies again.

Darlene

January 31, 2019 at 8:40 am

its supposed to rain in So Cal so I think I will treat myself to these scrumptious brownies and maybe even get a proposal too! Sue I had a question for you. Do you suppose you could do a blog on kitchen scales? Ever since mine broke I’ve been wanting to get a new one but there’s so many to choose from I end up getting nothing. I know that many have nutritional information as well. If not a blog then maybe you can recommend one for me! Thanks so much Sue. I’m taking the eggs out right now!

I just got back from the grocery store and it’s very blustery! And your question is timed perfectly, mine also broke and I haven’t replaced it yet. I was going to do a post on the whole weight/volume measurement conundrum. I’ll get to it asap. As for the scale, my short advice is that you get what you pay for, so it’s worth going ‘upscale’ (no pun intended) especially if you use it a lot.

I used the same recipe and won someone’s heart. Thanks for the fantastic and easy stuff that made my day. Looks good, feels good and tastes good. Can you suggest some more different types of silver color toppings?

Marry Me Brownies reminds me of why General (President) Eisenhower would say he married Mame. She made brownies for him and her recipe became famous way back in the day. He stated that is why he married her. He was a very good cook himself. Her tomato pudding and a few others were delicious. His were mainly from his Quail hunting excursions in South Georgia I believe.

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